Minnesota Vikings: Blake Bortles would be a good fit, college coach says

Quarterback Blake Bortles of the UCF Knights runs with the football against the Baylor Bears during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2014, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Early this year, before the NFL draft process began, Central Florida coach George O'Leary talked to his star quarterback about the Vikings.

O'Leary figured Minnesota would be a great place for Blake Bortles because of star running back Adrian Peterson and new offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who uses a system similar to what Bortles ran in college.

"I'd love to see (Bortles) go to Minnesota," O'Leary, the Vikings' defensive coordinator in 2002-03, said Monday in a phone interview. "I think any young quarterback would love to have the running game they have. (Bortles) asked me before the draft (process) all started, 'What do you think?' I said I hope he goes to some place where they can run the ball. It would be a lot easier. It takes a little bit of heat off him as far as being the guy.

"I basically think it'd be a great mix (with the Vikings). There's no question they like him. Norv really likes him."

Heading into the draft, which runs Thursday through Saturday, one of the big questions is whether the Vikings like Bortles enough to draft him with the No. 8 pick in the first round or whether they will select a defensive player or look to trade down.

Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel is expected to be gone by the time Minnesota picks. That could leave Bortles as the best quarterback available for the Vikings, who need one but are not desperate since they recently re-signed Matt Cassel to a two-year contract.

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The 6-foot-4 Bortles is considered by many to have the most upside of any quarterback in the draft, but he is not regarded as a sure thing. So he could be a risk at No. 8.

"This is a stab in the dark because I started out with all (the available quarterbacks) rated in the middle to the bottom of the first round," ESPN analyst and former NFL executive Bill Polian said Monday on a conference call.

Central Florida quarterback Blake Bortles scrambles with the ball during a Nov. 16, 2013, game against Temple in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

"If you put a gun to my head and said, 'All right, make a pick,' I'd say it's Bortles only because he's prototypical because of his size and he's played for a coach, George O'Leary, who knows the (NFL) well.

"If you want to take a smidgen of data that would separate him from the others, it would be his prototypical size and George has made him mentally tough enough to handle what he's going to face in the (NFL). Are any of them ready to come in and play right away? No, I don't think so."

Bortles, 22, had one more year of eligibility left with the Knights. He threw for 25 touchdowns in both 2012 and 2013 and led Central Florida to a surprising win over Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl in January.

Comparing his man to the other top quarterback prospects -- Manziel, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater and Fresno State's Derek Carr -- O'Leary not surprisingly agrees with Polian in calling Bortles the best of the lot.

"If you look at the consistency and the size and what you have to look at in that league, I think he fits the character of the ones who have been successful," O'Leary said. "Can he be the guy? Yes, he can be the guy."

O'Leary said being in Turner's system could "shorten the learning curve," but it will take some time for Bortles to develop wherever he goes.

"I don't know if anybody's NFL ready because of the speed of the game," O'Leary said. "But I think Blake has worked extremely hard. He has all the things you're looking for. He has vision. He can read defenses and has a good enough arm to get the ball where it needs to get to. ... But it takes time under the right tutelage."

But how long would the Vikings be willing to wait for a quarterback they take with the No. 8 pick? General manager Rick Spielman reached in the 2011 draft to take quarterback Christian Ponder at No. 12, and Ponder has been erratic in three seasons.

For that reason, some believe Spielman wants to avoid any chance of a repeat and the Vikings instead might look to take a quarterback in a later round.

"The difficulty always is, if you're faced with a quarterback decision where you're probably overdrafting them," Polian said. "And with virtually every quarterback in this draft, I think that's probably the case. That said, if you need one -- and they do -- you're in no man's land and you say, 'Well, this is probably too early for this player (so) we'd like to trade down.'

"But if you can't trade down, you have to make a pick. So it's a question of evaluating what you think of the upside of that quarterback versus what another player at another position would give you (and) whether you feel good about a quarterback further down in the draft.''

The Vikings must make that decision Thursday. If the choice is Bortles, O'Leary is confident it would be "a good marriage."